How to become well read.

Cafe Society
1

Hello all.
Back in High school there was a teacher I had who arrogantly announced that he was well read. The meaning was “I have read the great classics of literature and therefore am better than you.” It wasn’t even a hidden meaning, he basically just said it.
To add some fun to the mix he offered, much to his altruistic nature, to prepare a list of books one must read in order to become well read also. Being the adventureous sort I put my hand up and said “I’d like a copy of that list please.” The look on his face was priceless. I was far from being a perfect student (allthough I was far from the worst) and the sarcasm was dripping when he replied he would arrange one for me.
I never recieved that list, but the question of how one became well read stayed with me. I even started keeping a list of books that I had read for some strange reason. (I doubt the existance of that list made me any better read, especially with the number of “Star Trek” novels that were on it.)

Anyway, here I am with a question that has been on my mind since the late 80’s, what books do you feel one must read to become well read?

2

I think I can say that *The Illiad * and *The Bible * both belong on that list. Both works are crucial to understanding Western Civiliazation.

3

I recommend The Straight Dope Message Board. To much knowledge to pass up. I’d be lost without it.

I must say though, your teacher really sounded like he was full of it.

4

Well, I’ve been through the Humanities series at UCSD, which is essentially an evolution of western religion and philosophy class. A list of what we read (by no means comprehensive, and some books are rather unnecessary):

Old Greek stuff:
Oedipus the king - Sophocles
Prometheus bound - Aeschylus
The Birds - Aristophanes
The Clouds -Aristophanes
The Bacchae - Euripides
The symposium - Plato
The Oddyssey - Homer

If I were to skip any from the Old Greek stuff, I’d skip The two by Aristophanes, and the Bacchae. Also, The republic may be a better choice than the symposium for Plato

slightly less old Roman stuff:
The Aeneid - Virgil

ok…that didn’t deserve it’s own label…

Early Christianity:
The Divine Comedy - Dante
Confessions - St. Augustine

Early European politics/science:
Utopia - Thomas More
Discourse on Method and Meditation - Descartes
The Prince - Machiavelli
Lost Atlantis - Bacon

Later Christianity:
Spinoza (don’t remember title)
Bayle - some massive dictionary - we read part of one entry
Lebitz (don’t remember title)
Candide - Voltaire (there’s probably a better choice to read for Voltaire)

Philosophy:
The fable of the Bees - mandeville (Just read the footnotes, not the actual poem)
Foundation of the metaphysics of Morals - Kant
Shopenhauer as educator - Nietzsche (read one of Nietzsche’s later works instead)

Revolutionary and modernish politics:
An essay concerning the true original, extent and end of civil government - John Locke
The Social contract - Rousseau
Common sense - Thomas Paine
On Liberty- Mill
Communist Manifesto - Marx

Misc:
Beowulf
Civilization and it’s discontents - Freud
Shakespheare - we read the tempest, but should read more
The Decameron - Boccaccio (very amusing)

Well, I hope that gets you started :wink:

5

You might want to check out The Western Canon by Harold Bloom. Bloom is a professor of literature at Yale, and is a strong critic of the school of thought which dismisses the traditional “great works” as being nothing but “Dead White Males”.

6

I would add

Le Morte D’Arthur, Thomas Malory
The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser
Pilgrim’s Progres, John Bunyon

Wordsworth and Coleridge: Lyrical Ballads (including Wordsworth’s Preface to the 1802 edition)

Jane Austin, Pride and Prejudice
Henry Fielding, Moll Flanders
Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities
Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Ernest
TS Eliot - Wasteland, J. Alfred Prufroc
James Joyce, Portrait of the Artist
Mark Twain, Hucklebery Frinn
Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer

(This is from my Well Read List, English Edition.)

7

Lately, I’ve been working on becoming more well-read myself. I have had some fun comparing different lists of “great books,” and choosing which to put on my own to-be-read list. Here are some of the sources I’ve used–I hope you enjoy them too. :cool:

The New Lifetime Reading Plan : The Classical Guide to World Literature, Revised and Expanded by Clifton Fadiman and John Major

Great Books Lists–a collection of just about every ‘best books’ list ever written

Great Books Index–a list of books in the “English tradition”–with links to online texts

The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had, by Susan Wise Bauer–basic instruction in how to give yourself a literary education

How to Read Literature Like a Professor : A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between the Lines, by Thomas Foster–the book I wish I’d read before going off to college as a literature major. Fun to read, too.

8

Read everything by Homer, Shakespeare, and Milton. Follow it up with a dessert of the Romantics, including their critical essays, and finish with Samuel Johnson.

9

Issac Asimov,

Fiction: The Foundation

Non-fiction: Everything!!!

10

I’d say that being well-read is not so much a matter of having “gotten through” a specific list of works, as it is having read at least a few of the acknowledged classics and near-classics from a wide variety of genres, styles, and periods.

But you probably have to have at least some familiarity with the Bible, Shakespeare, and Greek mythology/literature, since so much of what has come since involves allusions, echoes, and reactions to these.

11

Hm. A well-read person will be both a generalist and well-read in his “area”.

Was that teacher an instructor in literature? I suspect that a science teacher could truthfully make the same statement and offer a different booklist.

For an introduction to, “what an educated citizen of the world should or might want to know about the world outside the borders of the United States”, I’d recommend World Access. I’ve looked at it sporadically over the past several years; I’m about halfway through. It’s a fun read.

Speaking of fun, I’d say that Thudlow has the right idea. I’d start by dipping into a Great Book list (or anthology), rather than feeling obliged to slog one’s way through it.

12

Read what you want. Just read a lot.

I’m one of those folks who feel that all books have value, even “brain candy” like Star Trek or romance novels. Never have I read a book where I didn’t learn something– some little tidbit about history, or human nature, or a quote from a poem . . . . there’s always something you can take away from it.

I do think one should have at least a nodding acquaintance with the classics. Not many people today feel like sloughing through some of the ancient philosophers, but if you can read something about the philospher himself, his theories and ideas, you’ll at least be able to discuss the subject intelligently. Sometimes I prefer good biographies of the philosoper, rather than reading the works themselves.

I don’t think being well-read is something that can be concretely defined, as in, “If you haven’t read this and that, then you aren’t well-read.” I think it comes from being a voracious reader who reads a wide variety of different types of books.

I think a person who is truly well-read is a person who just loves to read for the sheer pleasure of it, not one who reads classics they don’t really enjoy just so they could brag about it and look smart. (God help me, don’t get me started on those people who have expensive leather-bound editions of the classics on their living room walls which still have that “virgin book” crackle when you open them.)

13

[Moderator Hat ON]

To Cafe Society.

[Moderator Hat OFF]

14

If you want “western civ”, the reading list at St. John’s College should keep you bust for a while.

In your spare time, you might consider taking up croquet.

http://www.stjohnscollege.edu/asp/main.aspx?page=1302

15

And read Cosmos by Carl Sagan. I think some first-class scientific works should be on Old Bloomie’s list as well. (Don’t huff and puff, I respect the dude’s expertise in literature, I have a few Bloom works sitting on my shelf. I just think that the average person should make an effort to know more about how the natural world works).

16

Oh, for crying out loud, why doesn’t anyone ever suggest the work that modelled what novels would look like for a few hundred years after its creation? Las Aventuras del Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha.

17

I second dangermom’s suggestion of A Well Educated Mind. Not only does it have good sugestions on what to read, but it talks quite a bit about how to go about reading in a way that I for one agree with.

Bloom is a pompous ass! :slight_smile: I read a lot of what he has to say, but none is more arrogant than he. All reading Bloom ever did was make me angry with him. But, he is an expert, and very very bright; he’s certainly got knowledge worth absorbing, if you can stand his attitude.

18

He was probably lamenting the fact that most of his colleagues weren’t. :frowning:

19

Read the unabridged versions of classic texts, preferrably facimilies. If you ever get the chance, carefully read first editions, really rare books, and books signed by the author. There is nothing quite like it. And if you pardon me for being blasphemous, it can often be a religious experience.

My advice on the method of reading is this: read for something, anything. Find question you want to answer and then narrow down your reading into a field of study.

It could be questions like what is the human condition, can the human condition change? By exploring reading from the Greek classics to today, you may find your answer. Keep quotes in journals. Sometimes what one author wrote that is controversial, inspiring, or intriguing may lead to other questions. Whatever you do, do it for yourself, not for your teacher or anyone else.

20

If you’re talking about being well-read in fiction then its good to read novelists who can clearly be described as being influential, rather than just being good. Their books provide reference points for trends and movements in literature, that can help you piece it all together.

Two of the best American writers in recent times are Thomas Pynchon and Cormac McCarthey, IMO. Pynchon is enormously influential, his style and ideas have been stamped across a generation of young writers. Required reading for being “well-read” in modern American lit. CM, on the other hand, despite being (nearly) as great, is never considered an influential writer AFAIK, and wouldn’t be high on a list of books that bestow well-readedness.